Our look at the real apartment rents of Cambridge continues. A reader writes:
I have been following your Cambridge rent thread on Curbed, and figured I would weigh in with our recent experience. My wife and I moved from Raleigh (we owned a 1600sq ft end unit townhome that was built in 2005 that we bought for $170k in 07 and sold for $174k in 2011), and we ended up renting in Washington Square in Brookline, as we wanted to experience living in the city. We both work, and have good paying jobs with each of us just over the six figure mark. Our Washington Square apartment is a 2 bedroom, with washer/dryer, one parking spot, central air, dishwasher, and .1 mile to D line, and .25 to C line. We paid $2100 a month for this apartment for the past two years, as it was a rental by owner, who did not increase rent, and actually let us go on a 6 month and then month to month lease for the last 6 months. Traffic, however, drove this reader from Brookline:
We wanted to move to Cambridge, as most of our friends are there, and the Brookline to Cambridge drive is one of the worst 3 miles you can experience in a car, and I wanted to be closer to the Mass Pike. We found a 2 bedroom apartment in Cambridgeport, right off Western/Putnam, that is an equidistant .5 to Harvard and Central Squares. The apartment has one off street parking spot, washer/dryer, dishwasher, balcony, and elevator. It is in a 16 unit, 5 story building. We got this apartment for $2200. I think we did alright, we are both 29, and in that stage where we don't want to buy the suburban house and have kids yet, but we are probably too old to buy the condo (and don't want to pay the crazy prices right now), unless we are going to hold onto it and rent it out, so we have decided to rent for a few years. I thought it was interesting that one of the rental agents we talked to told us we "should" be looking at apartments in the $5k per month range based on our incomes. We said no thank you, as we enjoy having money to do things, and to save for our down payment.
What's your Cambridge rental story? Tell us! (Anonymity guaranteed.) And here, by the way, is why we're doing this at all.
· Keeping Your Head Down When It Comes to Cambridge Rents [Curbed Boston]
· Still Searching for Cambridge's Real Apartment Rents [Curbed Boston]
· Combing Cambridge Rents [Curbed Boston]
· Just How Much Does It Cost to Rent in Cambridge? [Curbed Boston]